Each year the industry of raising tropical fish increases as more and more people discover the pleasures of keeping tropical fish. There is a pleasure and calming effect of watching the brilliant patterns formed by the movement of the fish in their aquarium. As a result, tropical fish are used as pleasant and fascinating decor in the home, hotel foyers, doctor's and dentist's waiting rooms, and in hospital therapy.
The cost of attaining and breeding tropical fish can be very expensive. Therefore, for the tropical fish breeder, it is imperative to prevent disease to the fish. Although it is obviously better to adopt the principle that prevention is better than a cure when dealing with fish, immediate remedial action, such as immunization and medication have provided an opportunity to cure the fish from its illness.
One current method to administer medication to fish that are sick is to simply drop the medication in solid form into the tank. The fish, hopefully, will eat the solid particles mistaking it for food. In many cases, the fish do not eat the medication and as a result further deteriorate and die. Another method to administer medication to fish is to provide a mass vaccination in which many fish are sprayed with vaccinates so that the fish receive direct application of the medication on some portion of their body surface. For the tropical fish breeder, generally a single fish may become ill at a time. Therefore, the methods for mass immunization or distribution of medication is not warranted or advised.
A recent experimental method for administering medication for an individual fish was to remove the sick fish from the tank and inject the medication into the fish along the side of its body. This procedure has not provided a high success rate and has inflicted undue stress to the fish being vaccinated.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a method and means for feeding or medicating an individual fish. It is further a desire to provide a means for administering liquid food or medication that minimizes stress to the fish. It is also a desire of the invention to provide a means for accurately administering a measured quantity of food or medication to the fish. Finally, it is a desire of the invention to provide a method for vaccinating a fish that eliminates waste of the medication.